Alaska or Bust
by Verthril
Summary: His question came in a little robin's egg blue box that he hadn't time to bring voice to before she said yes, always yes. When he pulled up in a camper just like she had once stowed away when their fates had been crossed, Marie didn't care where they were going so long as it was with him. Heading north again, she's out to finish what she started. Set after What are Friends For.


Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.

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Wandering down the wilderness path listening to the nightly song played by the denizens of the lake, she felt compelled on knowing her fate laid where the lapping waves met the shore. She could see it now, a dock running of into the mirror still waters with torches set a span of no more than five paces apart. Somewhere distant music played filled with laughter and joy she longed to know herself, traipsing along barefoot across the weathered wooden planks.

A figure stood at the end of the dock bathed in shadows, waiting for her to grow near as she did without fear or worry knowing it was where she was fated to be. As she neared the unlit torches beside her burst to life with hungry flames until finally she stood before him in their glow to see his rugged face staring down at her. Taking her chin in a finger and guiding her lips to his he breathed life into her that she hadn't known she had been missing all this time, only now realizing the pain that had always been there was finally gone from her breast as her heart beat with renewed vigour.

"Marie..." Logan asked as the kiss parted in an awful torment.

"Yes! Yes, always yes..." Marie promised if only he'd kiss her again.

Her answer had him smiling and she longed to know the taste of his lips again but he denied her only to fall to one knee now looking up and holding her hands. Wondering just when he had done it a small blue box rested in their grasp that had her struggling for breath as she opened it. Inside a ring lay on a bed of satin, the diamonds sparkling with a light their own as the starry heavens above were joined by the twinkling light of fireflies dancing in the darkness.

"Will you marry me?" Logan finished holding her in his gaze.

"Always yes..." Marie whispered as he slid the ring along her finger.

Turning to walk down the dock she noticed a bed waited for them above the still waters of the lake, guided to the silken sheets by her love as they embraced beneath the heavenly bodies above. She surrendered to his wanton needs and let her own desires run rampant with her hands running over his rippling, taut muscles.

"Marie..." Logan called even as he kissed her.

"Yes..." Marie promised once more.

"Marie..." Logan called louder as she pulled him close.

"Always yes..." Marie swore between breaths.

"Marie!" Logan roared as she felt herself completed in a union of flesh.

Snapping awake, the dream was fading quickly and she struggled to remember all those moments she had lived but seconds ago. She felt the camper jolted again and knew what had woken her, the rough road beneath as they headed along their journey. Logan looked to her with a cocked eyebrow and a smirk that was met with her own sleepy smile and a yawn.

"Bout time ya woke up." Logan said with a smirk.

"Huh?" Marie asked rubbing the sleep from her eyes and stretching as best her side of the truck would oblige.

"Was tryin' ta git yer attention." Logan said with his eyes back on the road.

That part of the dream had been real too then she thought, looking down to her engagement ring and thinking of the act they had preformed under the stars but a handful of nights ago. Dangling from the rearview was her robin egg blue Tiffany box hung by a piece of ribbon, the first of many touches she slowly made to make the camper theirs.

"Shouldn't go wakin' a lady up outta her beauty sleep." Marie sniffed, yawning again after and noticing it was just shy of a quarter after one in the morning.

"I'll remember that in the future Mare, but fer now I figured ya might like sleepin' in a real bed rather 'n havin' yer pretty little face pressed up against the window." Logan said with a laugh.

That was when she noticed the real reason for why the road was so rough and ragged, somewhere along their way while she was enjoying such nice dreams he had pulled off onto another of the logging roads or trails that littered the forests that claimed so much of the countryside. It stirred a memory that wasn't hers filled with the smell of fresh cut timers and the exhaust of a chainsaw and the sweat earned from a day of honest to goodness work.

As they cleared the tall trees they came upon a river with its banks littered by rocks rolled and rounded smooth by time after tumbling down the mountainside. Coming to a stop and cutting the engine, Logan rolled down his window to greet the peace and quiet of knowing there were likely fewer than a handful of people for a hundred miles around you. It was a quiet filled with the rushing river and the occasional cry of an owl or howl of a wolf.

"I got such a crick in my neck." Marie mewed tiredly as she climbed out of the truck to stretch.

Now well used to just how quiet he could be when he wanted, she felt his hands upon her shoulder massaging her fatigued flesh and working out the aches and pains of snoozing on the road. Trailing down her sides with fingers finding all her ticklish spots he pulled her into a hug and kissed her head as they stood there staring at the rushing waters.

"Hungry?" Logan whispered, the quiet of the moment begging for hushed voices and soft steps.

"Starvin'." Marie whispered back.

"Ditto Darlin'." Logan growled in her ear telling of two hungers he wasn't alone in suffering.

Walking together to the camper and finally breaking their embrace, he eyed the camp stove once and then had a look to the shoreline littered with rocks. With one last kiss to her cheek he left her to rummage for what would become their dinner. Holding a can of chili in one hand and a can of stew in the other, she blew an errant lock of hair from her face and eyed her fishing rod hanging from the rack on the wall.

"Where tha heck is Jubes when I need someone ta bait my hook." Marie huffed, thinking it was time to try her luck again.

Raising her chin high walking past Logan with her rod and reel, he just smirked at her toiling over building a fire starting with a ring of rocks and plenty of weathered driftwood littering the shore. The sound of his flint and steel had her thinking of all the little anachronisms he'd been picking up ever since he'd been pulled back from the brink of death.

"Alright, who wants ta be dinner." Marie asked to the fish she envisioned swimming beneath the fast moving river.

A look to her bare hook had her grimace, the first challenge finding bait. Peeking under rocks and looking behind strips of bark, eventually she found a slimy slug that was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Making a face and closing her eyes as she baited her hook Marie hoped against hope that some damn sneaky fish wouldn't make off with it forcing her to go through it all over again. Casting her line under a small waterfall, she found fallen tree and waited with a finger pressed to her line to feel the slightest nibble.

Enjoying the early morning, just alone with Logan and the bed they shared, she noticed the first waft of smoke and had a glance back to where he was fanning the flames of what would be their cooking fire.

"Here fishy, fishy, fishy, fishy..." Marie whispered, giggling at the thought of the muppets from her childhood.

Feeling a nibble and then a bite, she let her line run just like she'd been taught until just the right moment to set the hook. Taking up slack and rushing to the edge of the river she fought with the fish to land it, a speckled trout never looking so good in her life. Feeling almost like a child as she raced back to the camper where Logan was throwing a few large branches on the fire, she showed her still hooked fish proudly.

"S'good catch babe, ya gonna gut and clean it?" Logan asked.

"Ew, no! I catch it, you clean it! That's the deal mister!" Marie snorted, thrusting her rod and reel to him.

Just like up at the cabin that had been one rule she stuck with, unless of course it was Logan who caught the fish and then it was you clean what you catch. Heading back to the camper she started eyeing the canned veggies.

"Whaddya want with yer fish hun?" Marie called back holding a can of peas in one hand and wax beans in the other.

"Meat." Logan bellowed as he took to task gutting the fish with a pocket knife.

"Peas it is!" Marie said making the choice for the both of them as she gathered up everything she needed.

By the time she had the can opened and on the fire Logan had the two halves of fish roasting over the flickering flames on some whittled down branches. Watching him head off to the camper once more, this time he returned with a couple of blankets for their late night picnic.

"Move on over mister." Marie ordered as she slipped on down in front of him.

"Plenty o' room..." Logan whispered, wrapping her up in another blanket and holding her near.

Toying with her ring again and thinking of the promise it spoke of, she had to wonder if somewhere on this journey to Alaska if he wouldn't remember the name she would take as her own, the future Missus Marie...to be announced. Dining at the banks of the river with the whole of the universe open above them, nothing seemed impossible as she made the trek north again safe in his arms, Alaska or bust.

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Author's Note : I had toyed with writing what will become this story as the beginning to The Heart Wants but I thought it deserved it's own story. Set after the events of What are Friends For. Enjoy!


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